Special to the American Press

Freshmen excel at LSU meet

BATON ROUGE — A couple of McNeese State freshmen made strong collegiate debuts on Friday at the LSU Louisiana Indoor Invite in the lone indoor meet the Cowboys and Cowgirls will compete before the Southland Conference Indoor Championships.

Freshman Kayla Warner won the women’s 800 meters with a time of 2 minutes, 23.91 seconds. Warner ran the second-fastest 800 by a freshman in the SLC this season and the fifth-fastest overall.

Cowboys freshman sprinter Kameron Quinn qualified in the 60-meter dash finals after a preliminary time of 6.86, the fourth-fastest in the conference this season and the fastest by a freshman.

Quinn ran the fastest 60 meters by a Cowboys freshman making his college debut. He followed up with a 6.88 in the finals to place third.

Freshman Kinnady Hawkins placed fifth in the women’s 60-meter hurdles (9.06).

Cowgirls jumper Malaiya Jedkins posted two top-six finishes after finishing fourth in the triple jump (38 feet, 7 inches) and sixth in the long jump (17-5.25). Shania Anthony finished third in the 800 meters (2:24.32) to join Warner in the top three and Dreunna Washington ran a 7.69 for a sixth-place finish in the 60 meters.

For the men, Josh Raphael finished fifth in the 60-meter dash (6.89) after posting 6.87 in the preliminaries.

Newcomer Rodney Tookes placed fourth in the 400 (52.3) while freshman Olu Ogunyemi ran an 8.31 in the 60-meter hurdles to finish fifth. Teammate Ronnie Jackson followed with an 8.33 and a seventh place finish.

Marcellus Boykins recorded a personal best in the triple jump after measuring a 45-7 mark for a second-place finish.